executiveorder9066

Amazing that they were still smiling. :) -- Seen in your 1930s-40s in Color set. (?)

I am wondering/pondering the same thing. Why?

I love that they always kept their morale up even though they were being held in camps like prisoners. They managed to continue living as if they would outside of those camp walls.

Smiling politely at the camera, with a dignity all their own. What happened to the Japanese internees was really shameful.

If you see lots of internment photos and films, as I have, the incarcerees usually look happy. These were their family photos, not conscious documentation of the injustice they were living under. muI think the daily life they built in the camps, which was filled with a lot of pretty "normal" activities like employment and pastimes, didn't leave much time for sitting around and looking miserable over the hardships and fundamental betrayal dealt them by the U.S. government. Also, photography by incarcerees was officially banned in the camps though the restriction was eventually relaxed. This undoubtedly caused a lot of negative sights to be hidden from cameras. I've read that Dorothea Lange took a lot of photos that revealed the harsh realities of the internment camps, but I haven't found them online yet -- hopefully they'll be available soon.

The camp is so large, the photographer can't get it all into the frame.

Wow it is huge. It looks like it could contain tens of thousands of people that happened to be the wrong race at the wrong time. What a shame.

Visited the site in 2007. I think this photo must have been taken from up on Castle Rock.

The invasion of the Western US was a very real threat at the time.. had we not relocated them and had the Japanese been able to land large numbers of sabotuer teams on the West coast the damage could have been immense.

I had no clue the internment camps were this massive, crazy shit

Thanks so much for sharing this photo. Our treatment of Japanese-Americans at this point in time was shameful. Those who don't remember history are condemned to repeat it.

I am really bothered by the the heading, "war emergency evacuation," as if Japanese Americans were rounded up and shipped off to the camps for their "own good." It shows that the U.S. government can say or do anything and justify it as a "war emergency."

They're preserving the titles of the photos as they were titled when they were taken. It's the Library of Congress historically documenting (and sharing with us) pieces of history. While that time period, and the subject matter is certainly sad and distasteful, I think it would be terrible if the LOC cleaned up the titles and other information to appeal to our modern sensibilities. It's much more important to get an accurate representation of history, imho. But I certainly understand where you're coming from- it was a terrible situation for the government to even conceive of internment camps, let alone put them into practice.

I agree with Jade. I appreciate the photo more because it has the original caption.

I agree with JadeEJF too. Doesn't change the fact that this is a shameful event in our history. -- Seen on your photo stream. (?)

Hana Shimozumi (Mme. Hana Shimozumi, Mme. Hana Shimozumi Iki) (1893-1978) was a Japanese prima donna singing the role of Yum Yum in Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado" with the new Gallo English Opera Company. It was scheduled to open on Labor Day, September 1, 1919 at the Shubert Theatre, New York City for two weeks before going on a tour of the United States and Canada. Hana was born in Honolulu, brought up in an American family in San Francisco and educated at Stanford University. Her vocal study was with Mrs. A.F. Bridge. –excerpted from The New York Times, [1] The Musicians and Stagehands Unions went on strike at 7:00PM, September 1, 1919, which delayed the opening of "The Mikado" for a week. When it did give it's first performance on September 8, 1919, both Hana Shimozumi and the production received a glowing review in The New York Times.  [2] [3] She later sang Fire Fly and Madame Butterfly and was a star with the San Carlos Opera Company and the Gallo English Comic Opera.   Mme. Shimozumi gave up a promising operatic career when she married Dr. G Iki (George S. Iki) (1892-1974) a surgeon, and a University of California graduate, of Sacramento. They had a daughter Marsha Y. Iki (b.1922). [4] [5] After the United States entered World War II, Hana Iki, her husband, daughter and three other family members were forcibly relocated and interned at Tule Lake Relocation Center in Newell, California in 1942. Hana was a U.S. Citizen, born in Honolulu County, Hawaii. She attended public schools in San Francisco, had never been to Japan, and didn't speak, read or write Japanese. [6]